Trial And Error

Colonel Young continues his slide into the abyss in the episode Trial And Error as we see him indulge a little too eagerly the fruits of Brody’s homebrew experiments. Young has also started having what he takes for nightmares, very vivid nightmares of the return of the aliens who we first met when they were discovered to have been tracking the Destiny for who knows how long. Each of these experiences leaves Young failing to save the ship from destruction but he is able to take some action in the real world even though he can not really explain why he is making these specific choices. Eventually he bites the bullet and goes to talk to Camille who is obviously sceptical but when Eli discovers the ship has been running battle scenarios the truth is revealed that Destiny has been interacting with the Colonel perhaps testing his command capabilities and refusing to enter FTL until it is satisfied with the results.

Trial And Error is an interesting episode as it pretty much breaks Young who has been on the edge since first arriving on Destiny. His relationship with his wife and TJ plus the rigors of commanding the military and civilian crew plus day to day gate operations have all taken their toll. The death of Riley in hindsight was the breaking point where he started to use alcohol as a crutch and it’s only been getting worse. The battle scenarios and neural interaction certainly add a layer of complexity and capability to Destiny and opens up a whole world of scifi story lines if the writers so chose to use them given the show would still be around in a few years. Of course the kicker was that when Young finally realised how far he had allowed himself to fall and at least started to correct the matter the pay off of Destiny finally engaging the FTL was undermined by Rush and his antics on the bridge with the “Franklin” persona. Oh well, maybe we’ll learn more of what Destiny is capable of when it isn’t being manipulated by Rush for his own ends.

Overall the episode was entertaining, the groundhog day approach is certainly not unique in scifi but it worked well and the cost of the rather spectacular explosions covered by multiple use. It was also gratifying to see Eli and Ginn simply sparkle with chemistry, it’s been said that she is perhaps a cold blooded opportunist but I want to believe she saw something in Eli that appealed and this was her chance to embrace a new path for herself free from the shadow of the Alliance. It was also without doubt delightful to see Greer playing the role of wingman or say big brother and taking such joy in the act, it confirms that he isn’t the hard nose he makes out to be but retains a very healthy scepticism on those who have yet to prove themselves.

Our thanks to Brad for joining us this week and to Mack for the feedback. This weeks podcast promo was for Nutty Bites and next week we are going to be taking a look at the episode The Greater Good, we hope you can join us for that and if possible let us know what you thought of the episode and this second season of Universe so far, not many episodes left.

Oh yeah, the Stargate Atlantis favourite episode poll is still open, would love to have your contribution:)

So I’ve just finished watching the first new episode of SGU for some time and I came away pretty satisfied. We see the crew dealing with the loss of Rush with the obvious differing opinions from within the camps and that’s made worse by a “malfunction” in the communication stones prior to an IOA report being sent. Things start to ramp up as the mysterious ship which left the Destiny earlier in the season is seen again bringing it’s own issues to the general mix of back stabbing and double dealing.